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Tuesday, November 3, 2009

While the attendance figures for the UNLV game probably weren't quite what you had in mind, you will be glad to know that tickets for the Utah game on November 14th are going fast. Here we are, still 11 days before the game, and sections in both the lower bowl and the upper deck are quickly filling up.

I was unable to find two seats together (meaning the sections are essentially sold out) in Sections A, C, D, E and F on the west side of the lower bowl. Section B was very close to selling out, and there were only seats available at the top of sections G & H. On the east (student) side of the stadium, sections W, V and U were all sold out, with only seats at the top of sections S & T available. In the upper deck, sections UD & UE are already sold out, with UC & UE filling up quickly.

The point I'm making here is, if you haven't already purchased your tickets for this one, do it now. The longer you wait, the harder it's going to be to get good seats and if you wait too long, you may end up being out of luck.

And since everyone associated with this blog is apparently a trust-fund punk who degrades women and isn't sincere about helping charities, I suppose I'll just conveniently forget to let everyone know that $5 from every ticket to the Utah game purchased online goes to the Susan G. Komen Foundation to fight breast cancer.

...at least that's what San Diego State's ad campaign for the 2009 season said, celebrating their new coaching hire. Judging by the 12,647 fans that were in attendance of the Aztecs' win over winless New Mexico last Saturday, their marketing efforts may have fallen a bit flat.

But it's hard to deny Brady Hoke's coaching credentials after he took his alma mater, Ball State, from a middle of the pack MAC team when he took over in 2003 to being 12-0 and ranked 12th in the BCS last season before falling to Buffalo in the MAC Championship Game. Now that he's departed Muncie, Indiana for sunny San Diego, both programs are feeling the effects of his move. Ball State's first game post-Hoke was a 20-10 home loss to North Texas. The Cardinals are now 1-8 in 2009, with their lone victory coming against 0-8 Eastern Michigan.

San Diego State, meanwhile, has already doubled their win total from last year's 2-10 season and have a decent shot at going to a bowl game. While that's a good start, you can tell in this interview that Hoke has higher aspirations for the Aztec program. Given the school's size (almost 35,000 students), the near-perfect climate and the abundance of football talent in the San Diego area and Southern California in general, and it's easy to see why a program-builder like Hoke sees a bright future for SDSU football.

He also does a great job playing Jeff, Larry David's agent on Curb Your Enthusiasm.

"It's taken us eight weeks, but it looks like we're finally building some consensus here. At least at the top and bottom.

All six of our panelists picked four of the state's ten teams in unison, and the top three of Texas, TCU and Houston was never in dbout after the weekend's results. Texas' demolition of Oklahoma State was just as impressive as TCU's shutout of UNLV, and even though the Coogs had some scary moments against Southern Miss, at least they showed they can still score. And the bottom team, Rice, gave us out first consensus cellar-dweller of the year -- a perfect six-of-six in last place votes.

Then you can take the rest of the state and divide it into two tiers -- the risers and fallers. Our poll unanimously (well, aside from one person's vote on on school) ranked Texas A&M, Texas Tech and SMU just behind the top three, and Baylor, UTEP and UNT just above Rice. The trend there is obvious -- SMU, Tech and A&M all won in impressive fashion this weekend, while Baylor and UTEP both flopped. And UNT got a second win ... but it came via a struggle with a winless football team. Tough to call that a true win.

Anyways, it looks like the state is starting to stratify a bit, and for the first time all season, we're finding some common ground. Now we just have to see if we can keep it that way."

Thanks to all of those who contributed last week in Spitblood's efforts to help out underprivileged youth and also get people in the stands for the remaining home games. We had an amazing week, and I can't thank you enough for your generosity.

Our total after last week is a remarkable $3,285The tracker is on the sidebar, notice the pyramid, just like Patterson would like it.

All of us SOS-watchers were very nervous about how Oregon's romping of USC was going to affect the Frogs' ranking, but the fact that TCU stayed ahead of Boise this week was quite a relief. It was a surprise to ESPN's BCS expert Brad Edwards, and cause him to say that "there's not much Boise can do" if the Frogs win out. Who provided the extra boost to help TCU stay above the Broncos may surprise you...

What went right:SMU 27, Tulsa 13-Ah, Tulsa. The anti-Oregon. While the Ducks' win over USC was a big boost to Boise's side, it was nicely countered by Smew's somewhat-unexpected win against the Golden Hurricane. And yes, you're reading that score right...SMU beat Tulsa worse than Boise beat Tulsa. Looks like the Mustangs have found their future QB in former Southlake Carroll Dragon Kyle Padron.

Utah 22, Wyoming 10-If you remember Bart Johnson's expression after he recovered his own fumble against Colorado State, that has to be what the entire Utah team looked like after trailing Wyoming 10-3 at the half. Nineteen unanswered points later, and the Utes are 7-1 and still creeping up the rankings. Whew!

Clemson 49, Coastal Carolina 3-Not that I was worried about Clemson losing this one, but I'm sure glad to see they easily took care of business. Hopefully they can continue their resurgence as they dive back into the ACC Title hunt this weekend.Texas State 28, Stephen F. Austin 7-Coming in to last weekend, SFA looked like the class of the Southland Conference. But Texas State QB Bradley George lit up the Lumberjacks with 324 passing yards and 4 TDs as the Bobcats improved to 5-3 overall and moved into a 4-way tie atop the conference standings.

Games whose impact could be seen as positive or negative:Air Force 34, Colorado State 16-Oh man, what happened to CSU's season? They were looking good at 3-0 with wins over Colorado and Nevada, but things have fallen apart quickly as the Rams have now lost six straight. With the win, the Falcons are now just one win away from bowl-eligibility and have Army (and ESPN Game Day) coming to Colorado Springs next week. The Rams must now win out to reach a bowl game, but do have New Mexico & UNLV left on their slate.

San Diego State 23, New Mexico 20-New Mexico actually led this game in the 4th quarter, and out-gained the Aztecs. It might have been nice to see the Lobos pick up the W in this one, because the thought of an 0-11 squad coming to Fort Worth and wreaking havoc on the Frogs' SOS doesn't sound too appealing. On the other hand, SDSU is now 4-4 and still has a shot at reaching a bowl game.

What went wrong:Duke 28, Virginia 17-Before you fly off the handle about UVA losing to another terrible team, do consider that Duke is now 5-3 and actually pretty decent under Coach David "Ole Miss neeeeever should've fired me" Cutcliffe. This is pretty disappointing, though, because at 3-5, UVA is probably not going bowling.

"Provo » Having had a week to watch the gory details, like how TCU's rather average offense gashed them for 412 yards and several big and momentum-changing plays, the BYU Cougars said Monday there's no need to panic."

I'm honestly insulted. Do they not watch our games, or are they just living a fantasy mormon world?